This post is as continuation of the cross blog conversation that I’m having with Marya Mesa of SunCoastMomma.com. We’re talking about balancing families, our online businesses, illness and everything in between. You can read the first post here.

In the last post, Marya talked about the whole work/life balance situation and how she handles that. Then she asked me:

“Alicia, how are you earning money from your online businesses? I know you have a few things going on. Do you have any helpful advice to women who are beginning to consider how they might be able to work at home?”

This is a two-part question, so I’ll start with the first half. I earn money in my businesses in a couple of different ways. One of the first things I learned when starting out online was to have more than one income stream. Some of mine are a bit more passive and some are things that I constantly put work into.

Here are my income streams:

Service-based

In my VA business, I provide general transcription and proofreading services to coaches, marketers and those in the health and wellness industry. This one is pretty cut and dry. I provide them with a service and they pay me for it.

Products and Programs

I have created several digital products that are housed at newVAadvice.com, such as ebooks, ecourses, audio trainings, self-study and “live” programs. For most of these, I did the work once, but the products continue to bring in income. I do make time to market these products and revise them to keep them updated.

Coaching

I offer one-on-one coaching sessions via email and phone, and will most likely be adding a group program in 2015.

Affiliate Marketing

The moment I learned about affiliate marketing, I fell in love with it. This is an income stream for me in both of my businesses. I recommend programs, products and resources that I trust to my clients and audience. If they purchase one of these items through the affiliate link that I provide, I receive a commission. I recommend affiliate products on social media, in my blog posts and within my own products and courses.

Those are my main sources of income. Again, I learned to diversify my income streams early on and I highly recommend that to anyone working online. It allows you more freedom when you know income is coming in from different sources.

The second part of the question was about advice for women who were considering working from home. I feel like I could talk about this subject forever! But I’ll keep it to some main points.

Make a list

First and foremost, I always recommend that women make a list of all of their skills, whether they were learned through school, work or life. Out of that list, note the things that you love doing and the ones you don’t really care for.

Focus only on the things that you enjoy doing and research how to turn that into something you could do from home. For example, let’s say that you’re good at bookkeeping, but you don’t enjoy it and numbers drive you a bit crazy. Then don’t consider adding that to a list of services in your service-based business. You won’t enjoy your work and you’ll start to resent your clients.

Watch for scams

Unfortunately, scams are anywhere and everywhere when it comes to researching working from home. If you find a website advertising something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Look into every avenue in detail before making your decision and search for reviews on a particular site or product before moving forward with it. Click here, and also here, for good resources on recognizing scams.

Don’t quit your day job

This is something that I talk to women about all the time. If you currently have a full-time job that is a main source of income for you, but you’d love to quit there and work for yourself, don’t do that just yet! Going out on your own is a big risk and it should be done strategically.

Instead, start working on your home business part time and bringing in some income with that before you give your notice at your full-time job. You don’t want to put yourself or your family in a stressful financial situation. With some planning, leaving your full-time job can be possible for you.

Get Support

Lastly, get support with your new endeavor. Find a mentor or a coach. Search for online and offline groups and communities of like-minded people who know what it’s like to work for themselves. As exciting as it is to think about working for yourself, sometimes it’s downright scary. It’s good to know that you have people you can turn to when you need an encouraging word, a kick in the butt to get moving or an inspirational chat.

Those are my biggest tips if you’re considering working from home. I want to thank Marya for having this cross blog conversation with me. Our goal was to give you a little insight into our work-at-home lives in order to help you along your journey.

Do you have questions or anything to add to the conversation? Leave it in the comments box below!

This post is as continuation of the cross blog conversation that I’m having with Marya Mesa of SunCoastMomma.com. We’re talking about balancing families, our online businesses, illness and everything in between. You can read the first post here.

In Marya’s last post, she shared how scheduling her work in blocks of time was best suited for her family and business life. Marya mentioned that this is the very reason she chose to specialize in social media and writing in her service-based business at SuncoastVA. Then she asked me:

“Alicia, my question to you this week is how do you manage your work time? Do you work in blocks of time or certain hours?”

Time management was definitely something that I struggled with in the beginning, especially once my son was born and I was trying to figure out how to nurse and work on my business without falling asleep at the keyboard!

When I started out online, one of the biggest pieces of advice floating around was to work during the times of day that you are most productive. That sounds great in theory, but when you’re juggling kids, work and household stuff, that can seem almost impossible!

So I played around with different tactics until I figured out what worked for me. Like you, I work in time blocks. And as my son grew, those time blocks moved and shifted during the day. So it was more important for me to make a list of all the tasks that needed to be done in a day and then place each of those tasks in a time block that I had available.

For example, when my son was first born, he slept a lot. But I needed to sleep a good bit of that time, too. So if he took two morning naps, I would work during one of those and sleep during the other. I didn’t go to daycare, so as his sleeping schedule shifted, I shifted my work schedule to accommodate him.

Now that he’s four, he goes to pre-school and our schedule is quite different. He goes to school for two hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. He naps for about an hour and a half in the afternoon after lunch. He goes to bed at night around 8:30 PM.

Therefore, I work while he’s in pre-school, during his daily nap and once he’s in bed for the night. This is where the time block method comes in handy. If his schedule shifts, I just move my time blocks to accommodate that.

This is also where I fit in a little of that advice about working at whatever point of the day you feel most productive. Since I can’t do that exactly, I choose which of the tasks on my daily to-do list that I feel like doing in each block of time that I have available.

For example, in the morning school hours, I’ll check my task list for the day. At that moment, I may feel inspired to write or record a video blog. So that’s what I’ll focus on during that two-hour time block. Since the late evening is when I have the longest stretch of time to work, I may choose to work on one longer task at that time, like a transcription project.

This is how I join the two concepts of “time blocks” and “most productive time of day” to work best for me.

I want to send this back to Marya now.

Marya, has there ever been a time that you’ve chosen work over family time or vice versa? Do you ever struggle with the whole work/life balance thing?

This post is as continuation of the cross blog conversation that I’m having with Marya Mesa of SunCoastMomma.com. We’re talking about balancing families, our online businesses, illness and everything in between. You can read the first post here.

In Marya’s last post, she told us about how she started working online, a little about her family and her “why” for doing what she does. Then Marya sent it back to me and asked:

“Alicia, can you tell us how you got started? What have been some of your struggles?”

I actually got started online quite unexpectedly. In 2007, I can remember sitting down and having a discussion with my husband about my career. I was in a management position in a printing company. I was really good at my job, but I just didn’t love it. I felt like something was missing and that it wasn’t what I was meant to do.

However, the rest of that conversation was about how we were ready to have a baby. I decided that I’d stay in my current job and make a five year plan. I’d take the first five years of our little one’s life to research and figure out what I really wanted to do with myself while still keeping my current job so that we had steady income and insurance.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans, right? In 2009, the economy tanked and the company I worked for closed its doors for good. I found myself permanently laid off and seven months pregnant. I was scared and stressed, thinking about my income that was now gone but very much needed. And I didn’t want to be stressed during my pregnancy—I wanted to enjoy all the planning that comes with getting ready for a new baby!

At first, I attempted to look for work and interviewed for offline management positions. But my heart wasn’t really in it, the job market was scarce and employers weren’t exactly jumping at the chance to hire someone who would soon be going on maternity leave.

I prayed, looked within and talked to my husband about things. I decided that the five year plan was out the window and now was the time that I needed to figure out what I really wanted to do for a career. Something inside me told me that it was time for a change. I also had a huge desire to be home with my soon-to-be-born baby while I worked. So I scoured the internet for legitimate work-at-home jobs. I found scams, piece-meal work and a lot of dead ends. But I didn’t give up.

Finally, I came across the virtual assistant industry and learned about general transcription. This whole concept was so right for me that I couldn’t believe it! I did more research and then bought a book about general transcription and a book about becoming a virtual assistant. Then I took action.

In May of 2010, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. By October of that year, I had my website up and running and my marketing plan in place. Starting a brand new online business from scratch with no leads or clients was very hard. But doing it with a newborn made it that much harder. Regardless of the struggles and hard work, it felt right. I knew that this is what I was supposed to be doing.

I landed my first client within six months and kept things steadily moving from there. As I progressed, I started getting emails from other women who saw my website and wanted to know how I got started. Then those emails became quite regular. That’s when I had a light bulb moment and knew that I had to create a site with resources for women just like me, to help them do what I do. I created newVAadvice.com. This is where I truly found my passion. One of my greatest gifts is the ability to help others. Women quickly found me relatable and approachable—and they were taking steps to change their lives just like I did.

What I do at New VA Advice makes me beyond happy. I love that I create my own schedule so that I have time to spend with my husband and son on my own terms. And mentoring other women is so rewarding to me that it truly doesn’t feel like work. I think I could have made some very different decisions back in 2009 when I was laid off. I certainly didn’t take the easy path—but I took the one that was right for me and my family.

I want to send this back to Marya now.

Marya, you’ve told us how you got started online as well as a glimpse into your family life, having children with special needs, homeschooling and dealing with your own illness.

First, let me just say that I commend any woman who decides to take things into her own hands and start her own business. You rock! How did you create a schedule that works for you in order to fit in everything you need to do with your family as well as your online business?

I’m currently in the midst of participating in Kelly McCausey’s Stretch Yourself Challenge. It’s a great, fun way to get out of your comfort zone and use content marketing to reach out in a bigger way, get the word out about what you do and how it helps people. And that’s really my goal here—to help more women plan a business that works around their lives!

Within this Challenge, I’ve decided to take part in a cross blog conversation with the awesome Marya Mesa at SunCoastMomma.com. We thought we’d give you a little glimpse into our lives—a little why and how we do what we do as entrepreneurs.

I know things click more for me when I can relate to someone and see myself in their story. Then I can find the key take-away that helps me and my business. That’s our goal for you with this cross blog conversation.

We’ll basically ask each other questions back and forth, and we’ll post our responses on our blogs. So you’ll want to follow along on her blog as well to catch all of the questions.

As we go along, if you have any questions for us, please leave them in the comments section and we’ll try to work them in for you. I’ll start with my question for Marya.

Marya, I’ve found that hearing other women’s stories about how they started their online business is often inspiring to those wondering if they can do it as well. What’s your “why” for starting your business? How did you decide that working from home was right for you? Tell me your story and what you do.

In a recent post, I shared with you how I became unhealthy in my work at home lifestyle and how I’m making changes now. In order to drive my point home and help you do the same, I’ve asked my friend and healthy work-at-home mama Brittnei Washington to stop by the blog and help us feel better and stay motivated! You can read the second post in the series here. Take it away, Brittnei!

I hope that you have found my posts to be helpful thus far. I wanted to give you a starting point for your exercise if you have not decided on something that you like to do at least once a week. Even if you have found something, if you can only get away once a week to do it, you still want to have some other physical activity that you do several times a week that can help you start burning calories and stay healthy. You can follow the images and do each image one day at a time. This is a 3-week plan:

Brittnei is a bubbly wife to Harroll Washington and mom to Harroll, Jr. who loves homemaking, beauty, decor, crafts, football and healthy living. She and her husband Harroll have a home business helping people virtually and in person to lose weight and live healthier lifestyles. Visit her website,HomemakingWithStyle.com, where she blogs about motherhood and healthy living.

Not long ago, I was working at my desk, checking my schedule for the week and living the virtual assistant lifestyle when I realized something. I’m not healthy. I’m tired all the time. I’m overweight. I don’t like the way I look or feel. How exactly did this happen?

At first I wasn’t sure. Don’t get me wrong—the work at home part of this equation is fabulous. I love having a flexible schedule and being home to raise my son while making a living doing something I love. But somehow, in the course of this, I got lazy.

The Danger Zone

First, I realized that I have access to my kitchen 24/7. When I used to work at a brick-and-mortar business, I would eat breakfast before I left home and I’d pack a lunch. Then I’d come home in the evening and make dinner. Now I found myself snacking throughout the day. I could just run into the kitchen and grab a quick bite or heat something up in the microwave whenever I wanted.

Computer Chair Butt

Then I realized how much of the day that I sit. All of my work revolves around sitting at the computer. At my offline job, I’d have to get up and go into different offices and parts of the building throughout the day. Now I can just sit here. I’ve designed my office in such a way that everything I need is at my fingertips. This is great from a productivity standpoint but not so good for my backside.

You Snooze You Lose

To add to all of this, I found that I was tired all the time. You know how much work goes into setting up and running your own business. You’re learning this yourself as you create your virtual assistant business. It seems there is always something to do and the whistle doesn’t blow at 5pm to end your day. Not to mention that you have things going on outside of your work life, like being there for your family. I wasn’t sleeping well, or enough, and I didn’t have the energy I needed to play with my son during my off time.

So what did I do about all of this? I did what any good solopreneur did. I whined and felt bad about myself. Okay, I did that for about a week—but then I took action! I realized that nothing was going to happen unless I made a change. I am now on a mission to get healthy. Here’s how I started.

Make Better Choices

Instead of walking into the Danger Zone when I enter my kitchen, it’s now a safer place to be. I started buying and eating more whole foods. I didn’t start with a complete overhaul of my fridge, but I made gradual changes. Over time, we used up the processed, boxed foods and began to purchase healthier, fresh options for our meals. I had already been cooking at home versus eating out for quite some time, but now I’m using fresh ingredients and a lot more veggies. Now, if I pop into the kitchen for a snack, I’m only faced with healthy options.

Move It to Lose It

I started taking a class at my local gym three days a week and I absolutely love it! I’m very proud to tell you that I’ve now been going there for five weeks! That’s a record for me when it comes to sticking with working out! The gym that I attend has a playroom for kids with staff who monitor them while you work out. This has been great for Danny and me. He gets interaction with other kids. I get some “me” time and we’re both out of the house and socializing!

Catching Zzzz’s

I also decided to try and go to bed a little earlier. I did that gradually as well, starting with 15 minutes earlier each night until I was finally going to bed an hour earlier than I used to. That has done so much for my energy coupled with the fact that I’m working out and eating better. I find that I feel more awake and alert during the day and while I’m working. I also have more energy to run around with my three year-old. After all, he’s the biggest reason that I wanted to work from home.

These are just a few small examples of how I’ve started to make changes to live a healthier work-at-home lifestyle. In the process, I met an awesome online friend who is not only healthy but motivating and super sweet!

Brittnei Washington will be visiting us here at New VA Advice with some posts that will help you live healthier and feel better. She’s a work-at-home mom just like us with a goal of getting people healthier and loving themselves. You can read the first in her series on the blog here.